this hotel is nice, but the room decor is a bit dated. the hotel says it is in the process of updating the tvs. the customer service was exceptional. the hotel conference food was yummy. the beach front is beautiful - especially the hammocks. made gor a great nap. the internet service is terrible, but i understand that is a problem on the whole hilton head island. great mattress - so comfy. great bath products - bath and body works. Bathrobes are a nice plus. Balcony is great for relaxing - even if not water-front. I stayed at this hotel for a conference, so the room price was reasonable. the full price posted in the room is overpriced, ~$400. look for a deal to stay here. i enjoyed my stay, and if i were in the area again, i would consider stayin at this hotel again.

As you drive up to the Marriott Resort in Hilton Head you marvel at the beautiful setting, the gracious entrance and attentive front door staff. The lobby is beautiful and the front desk staff welcoming and efficient. Unfortunately everything went downhill from there. As soon as I entered my room it was obvious the rooms in the hotel needed some serious attention. Considering this was an upscale resort hotel, finding a huge old TV and no flat-screen was somewhat strange. The TV was too heavy to even turn a little bit so it could face the lounge chair in the corner.The furniture in the room was scuffed and worn. There was a mildewy sort of smell in the room. The bathroom was clean and bright but the hairdryer was one of the cheapest varieties I have seen in a hotel. The shower spray was weak, and the head up so high I couldn't reach it to adjust. They need a handheld attachment for shower heads set this high on the wall. I decided to make a cup of coffee using the in-room individual coffee maker. The little creamer packs were spoiled and curdled in the coffee.
I was attending a bridge tournament with probably a couple of thousand people and somehow the hotel forgot they had this large influx of patrons coming in. The restaurant had not planned for this and had only scheduled one server and one bartender for the lounge and buffet supper. They closed the downstairs restaurant in the evening instead of leaving it open to accommodate the overflow of guests from the upstairs restaurant and lounge. Granted this is normally closed in the evening, but considering the jam of guests one would think some better planning was called for. The food was mediocre at best. The morning breakfast was no better. The breakfast buffet cost $18++ but ordering off the menu was about $12/order. What did they think people would do? So of course there was a backlog in the kitchen. They were obviously hoping everyone would eat off the buffet. What a nightmare. The staff seemed harassed and frantic at times.
The signage in the lobby was poor. It was hard to find a sign to the room you wanted to go to unless you were standing in front of the entrance to the section. The hotel had two towers but you wouldn't have known this standing in the lobby.
I did talk to the manager about the issues and they did comp a free pot of coffee in the morning to make up for the curdled milk. However, no one ever replaced the bad creamers so I imagine the next guest will have the same problem. The flat screen TVs are supposed to be installed in a couple of weeks.
The Internet connection in the room gave a choice of connection for various periods of time and choice of payment methods. I chose to charge it to my room and promptly got a temporarily unavailable message. It was temporarily unavailable the whole stay.
There is a little gift shop and coffee bar in the lobby area. But only one person was staffing the shop so people just wanting to buy an item or two had to wait in line while she also made the lattes, took the money, etc.
The main problem with this hotel is very poor management of resources, insufficient staff and no planning whatsoever. As far the the room amenities this would seem to me to be a corporate issue. Marriott gets a big black eye for this.

We had a poor family experience at this "resort" during our stay there in July 2011. This hotel is not a family resort, but more of a spring break motel during the summer. Sooo many people everywhere in and around the property - the lobby, elevators, hallways, pool, pool deck, beach, and restaurants were packed with people from early morning to late into the evening...which made it very loud and not very relaxing at all. Our room was dark, smelly, and not at all modern. Our room was also located a few feet from one of the jacuzzi's, in which people partied late into the evening just a few feet from our bed - numerous complaints to the front desk produced no results - just ensurances that the jacuzzi closed at 11pm, but this did not stop the parties until after 1am. Our "ocean front" room we ordered ended up being a party front room with no ocean view which kept us and the kids up late every night. This Marriott is in desperate need of better management and room renovations...which should be possible in regards to the ridiculous 5 start rates they are charging for only 1 star accomodations and service. This property may be OK if you visit during the off-season and get one of the better rooms (high floor with actual ocean view) for a very cheap price...otherwise stay away.

The Marriot is a spacious, friendly hotel with access to many Hilton Head destinations. Everything in Hilton Head is expensive, except a few dive seafood restaurmays which are actually very good. It is aggravating to have to pay toll to get to certain parts of the island. The best way to visit the island is to attand a timeshare presentation and get free or cheap accomodations ( if you can take the heat and aggravation of a timeshare presentation). My wife and I enjoy Hilton Head because we have friends in Savannah and prefer to stay in Hilton Head, Savannah is even more expensive for lodging than Hilton Head overall. Be sure and visit Savannah when traveling to Hilton Head, because it is a wonderful historic locale and has many wonderful restaurants (especially seafood as you might guess).